Chris Lombardi puts defense and security under the spotlight, as he shares his takes on recent NATO and EU cooperation and provides insight into the company’s own long-term strategic partnerships in Europe.

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When Silke Toenshoff applied almost a decade ago to be an administrator in economics working for the EU, she was not confident of success. Surely the institutions would be looking for a degree from the College of Europe and professional experience in Brussels, not a CV that included positions at management consultancy Accenture, the Berlin government and the think-tank Rand Corporation?

To her surprise, Toenshoff was one of the few successful candidates; she was then put on the reserve list (in July 2003) and six months later was given a post, at the Committee of the Regions (CoR). Eight years on, she is still there.

“What I liked about the Committee of the Regions was that, even at the interview stage, I could sense that they were interested in what I could offer,” says Toenshoff, 45, who in February 2008 became a head of unit in the CoR’s secretariat-general.

Her career experience may not have been typical of an EU bureaucrat, but it has proved its worth. Her time at Accenture, for example, taught her about analysing business processes, and how to tackle a problem. “You were thrown into projects and you had to find your way quickly. Those skills are still useful today,” she says.

Toenshoff is responsible for two of the CoR’s six commissions: Civex (citizenship, governance, institutional and external affairs) and Educ (education, youth and research, ICT, media and sports).

She is also in charge of the joint consultative committees with Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as well as the working groups for the western Balkans and Turkey. “From the beginning, I saw that the work would be very broad, which was appealing, as I had always worked with a diverse range of topics,” says Toenshoff. As a student, she gained a PhD in economics and also studied for a master’s in philosophy.

The influence of economics on political decisions has always fascinated her. She describes working at Rand, where she was an analyst on health and transport policy, as “paradise for someone who wants to think about politics”.

New experiences

Toenshoff’s motivation for changing careers has always been a desire for new experience. She recalls deciding to leave her job at Accenture to work for the Berlin government. “People thought I was crazy,” she says. “But I wanted to see from the inside how politics functions.”

She spent two-and-a-half years there, working in the department for economics and technology for three different governments. The experience showed her first-hand the challenges faced by a major city and how a regional government copes, even within extreme budgetary constraints.

Throughout her career, Toenshoff has enjoyed making things happen. She says this is possible at the CoR. “It is not a huge machine. You can really do something.” As examples, she mentions the Educ commission’s work in helping local and regional authorities use information technology to become more energy efficient.

There is also the Lisbon Monitoring Platform that she helped set up, which allows regional and local authorities to voice their concerns about EU strategy – the network has since developed into the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform with a membership of 156 regions and cities.

She has also been instrumental in the development of the Conference of the Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP), a body that brings together local and regional politicians from the EU and its neighbours to the east.

Having a job that is intellectually stimulating and varied, that combines politics and economics, and where people’s ideas are realised is pretty close to ideal for Toenshoff. It is just as well that she tried her luck all those years ago.